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Natural Nuclear Reactors

Posted by michael on from the toasty dept.

bungeejumper writes "The Astronomy Picture of the day has a picture of a natural nuclear reactor discovered in an uranium ore mine in Africa. This link has much more detailed information on this subject. Does this tie in with this wacky story about a HUGE PLUTONIUM FAST BREEDER REACTOR at the centre of the earth ?"

8 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. The story is only 26 years old, a new record by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: 5, Informative

    The story was originally covered in Scientific American, July 1976. It was a great read then and now. Highly recommended. There has also been talk about a second natural reactor (not in the center of the earth), but I can't put my finger on a source right now.

    --
    "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
  2. Magnetic field by u19925 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You don't need nuclear reactor to explain magnetic field. Whereever in nature, there are ionized particles and systematic rotation, magnetic field is found. Stars, neutron stars, galaxies (spiral galaxies have more magnetic field because they have systematic rotation while elliptical galaxies have less magnetic, since the star motion in them is random). Earth interior is at very high temperature, so, ionized particles are expected. Couple that with systematic rotation, and you have a magnetic field. Heavy objects in general produce more ionized in the interior than lighter object. Thus moon which has very small rotation and smaller in mass has no detectable magnetic field. Why would a nuclear reactor exist in earth's core but not on moon? Why would magnetic field exist on jupiter, saturn?

    The heat in lava can be explained by the heat transfer from the core. Earth's thermal conductivity is so small, that the heat trapped in the interior needs billions of years to come out and it is stil coming out. Additionally, earth contains some radio active material too, which generates additional heat. There are some theories in which relative importance of these two effects is different.

  3. Discover Magazine by LudditeMind · · Score: 5, Informative

    Discover had an article on the reactor at center of planet.

    http://www.discover.com/aug_02/featplanet.html

  4. No connection by f97tosc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is little connection between the two topics.

    The 'reactors' are of different types, and the center of earth one is something that is only predicted by a controversial model.

    The surface reactors in Africa are extremely interesting and have been known for quite some time now.

    They are also a powerful argument for nuclear power plants.

    After all, here is an example of how the radiocative by-products of fission have been stored safely for millions of years - without any sophisitcated protection technology.

    Tor

  5. Radioactive Decay? by Gerry+Gleason · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought the conventional thought about the Earths core involved radioactive decay slowing the general cooling trend. I didn't see any reference to this. What about all the individual things the theory claims to have a better explaination for? I guess I'm asking how solid is the conventional model? Regardless of the merits of this theory, is it possible that there are concentrations deep in the Earth?

  6. in Halliday's book (not modded yet, 0 karma) by Gamasta · · Score: 5, Informative

    Good and simple information can be found on page 1102 in 6th edition of Halliday's 'fundamentals of physics'.
    Oklo, located in the Republic of Gabon, was discovered about 30 years after the first artificial nuclear reactor was built by Fermi et al.

    This site also contains rich information.

    --
    reason defies logic
  7. "Natural Power Source" by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is great. There's a class of people who will consume anything if it's 'all-natural'. The intersection with the set of people who have 'No Nukes' bumper stickers is fairly large.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  8. Yes, but by T.Hobbes · · Score: 5, Funny
    The reaction ended two billion years ago.

    Mr. Burns - "Hello. We want to bury our nuclear waste in your backyard. I will compensate you generously for your acceptance."
    Homer - "Sounds dangerous..."
    B. - "Hardly! In but the blink of an eye all the radioactivity will be down to the most natural of levels!"
    H. - "Sounds great! We move out for two weeks and I'll be living like Duff-Man"
    Smithers - "Well, more like two billi-"
    B. - "[Hush, Smithers!] Exactly."
    H. - "Sign me up"
    B. - "Exxcelent. Oh, your check should arrive in three weeks or so..."
    H. - "Woo-hoo!"